Some research indicates that Mad Cow is caused by feeding meat protein to cows.
Most animals supplement their diet with animal protien, whether in the wild or domesticated. Meat protien itself is neutral, whether bone meal or other left over meat by-products.
Feeding animals meat protien is nothing of itself, indeed to farmers and the cows it is beneficial. The feed is cleaned up and disease free (at least in the US).
Remember, wild deer and sheep get the same disease while never coming in contact with domestication.
Stanford is working to cure the disease itself. The prions cause misfolded protiens in the nervous system which build up over time. It is the cause of these misfolded protiens that we are working to discover.
How the disease spreads is a function of a lot of things beyond the scope of Stanfords' research.